Activision Hires Online Detective to Take Down Warfare 2 Pirate

Just over a week ago it was reported that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for XBox 360 was leaked early to the Internet.

Since then, a pirate who advertised his services of Modern Warfare 2 and an XBox 360 before the street launch of the game has been busted by Activision with the help of an online detective they hired.

Apparently the whole process took less than a week for him to be located and busted, according to Rob Holmes, owner of IPCybercrime.

To quote from VentureBeat.com (linked above): "This kid was in a position to sell thousands of these," Holmes said.

Police interrogated the runner, who led them to Christian Del Amo's home. They then arrested Del Amo yesterday. Del Amo's attorney has not returned a call for comment.

The whole process, from finding the first tip to the bust, took less than a week. While the operation snagged a perpetrator, it didn't move fast enough to prevent the massive copying of the game on the torrents on the Internet.

"Hopefully it is a lesson," said Holmes. "If you try to do piracy on a large scale, you will get caught. When you use the Internet, you always leave tracks somewhere."

The investigation began based on something the person could not really have been arrested for. Them finding out he was selling on the side I guess is why they were justified. If they had arrested him just for cracking the protection then thats the law reaching to far. They should leave it to activision to sue and set a court date in that case.

He stole, he got caught, it is a crime, internet or not. He had potential to cause millions of dollars in losses, and people like this are the reason gaming company's have to cut corners and fire good coders. Hope he gets the maximum for the offense, and I hope the law starts to change so more pirates are easier to catch and persecute.

He stole, he got caught, it is a crime, internet or not. He had potential to cause millions of dollars in losses, and people like this are the reason gaming company's have to cut corners and fire good coders. Hope he gets the maximum for the offense, and I hope the law starts to change so more pirates are easier to catch and persecute.

Its "prosecute" and in his case you might be right. Most pirates aren't in the same group as this guy though as they don't sell games they download. Even if they do I don't think the law should criminalize and get particularly involved in what looks like a civil suit.

The internet I guess is a grey area and piracy is as well. On one hand you could look at the extreme antipirates as being ridiculously mean folks who don't think anyone should enjoy something unless they can afford it or you could think of pirates as being complete criminals who should be jailed. Either way I don't care as long as the courts don't go too far into bending for the wealthy companies and their interests.

yesterday while I was out and about I saw a stack of MW2 XBox 360 games in a local shop.. I was dumbfounded and actually confronted the sales man.. I ended up in an argument that they are cheating their customers but in fact the game was real.

He stole, he got caught, it is a crime, internet or not. He had potential to cause millions of dollars in losses, and people like this are the reason gaming company's have to cut corners and fire good coders. Hope he gets the maximum for the offense, and I hope the law starts to change so more pirates are easier to catch and persecute.

Selling stuff like this is actually a crime against the companies, the so said pirates and society in general. but the concept (without the selling that is) is no more the cause of corner cutting or people loosing their jobs than corporate greed. but some would say that's a matter of opinion.

Have you ever read/watched 1984 ? you should (a bit far fetched but a good glimpse of what can happen) an reconsider "and I hope the law starts to change so more pirates are easier to catch and persecute." ... b/c once you invite big brother to your home he's there to stay whether you like it or not.

Ken, this has nothing to do with 1984 and the gov't implanting a chip in your head - it has to do to prosecuting a thief. Besides 'big brother' already has access to your home if they feel it is 'necessary' so to speak, with the Patriot Act.

He was advertising TO sell. That doesn't mean he did or didn't. But it does mean he was trying. And people that assume pirates do this because they cannot afford it are blind. Pirates sell for profit - which the article says was his intent, he was advertising to sell and profit from other people's years of work.

i think its terrible what he's done! and definitely should take full blame for this. i'm pretty sure 90% of people on the internet have downloaded at least one song or film at least once in there life. but i never do it with games! takes far to much time for these people to make them.